A/N - Hey all, I know it's been a little bit, but life has been very mutable lately for me, so I'm a little slow. Expect another delay before the last chapter for this story goes up so I can edit through the NEXT one to the point that robbiepoo doesn't have to wait for me chapter by chapter. Anyhow. Here ya go.
Chapter 14 - Surprise Family Reunion
Since K and Logan had cut it so close to the holiday returning with Chance, they were more than a little surprised when all of Logan's other, adult children decided to show up for the holidays. It had to have been a coordinated effort, and he was sure that it was all arranged by Jubilee while they were gone and couldn't overhear her plotting and planning.
Of course, this family visit was announced by none other than Gabby as she very nearly tackled Logan in an excited hug. "Merry Christmas!" she declared happily.
"Didn't expect to see you," Logan said, the smile apparent in his voice as he returned the hug.
"Surprise!" She grinned. "I even brought presents for all of my brothers and sisters." The grin got even wider. "You have so many of us."
"Yeah, well." He didn't really have any solid way to react to that.
"But I am your only granddaughter. I mean, not counting the adopted space ones," she said. "I mean, I came from Laura, who came from you — totally counts."
"Laura's more like a daughter," Logan said. "I thought you passed biology. If you're a clone of hers, then you're more like a sister. But nice try."
"I was hoping it would get me an extra hug and a serious snuggle," she said, not looking the least bit ashamed of herself as she grinned up at him.
"You don't need a title for that," he chuckled, picking her up and giving her a crushing bear hug until she squeaked.
"Oh, are you trying to murder people before Christmas now?" Laura asked from the doorway with a little smirk.
"Murder by hug? Don't think I've ever done that," Logan chuckled.
"I like it!" Gabby declared. "It would be the best way to go."
"Come on," Logan said. "Got coffee goin' and we're startin' up breakfast."
"Akihiro is coming too, but he got waylaid," Laura said, not able to hide her smirk, and Logan looked a little surprised at that but didn't comment as he put his arm around Gabby's shoulder and headed with them both to where K was working on the Swedish pancakes.
"Oh. Look. More girls. How nice," K called out.
"Merry Christmas!" Gabby sang out.
"Same to you, sweetpea," K said, giving her a little smile; Logan couldn't help but chuckle at her. "You're both having coffee."
"We're staying for a few days," Laura said. "Thought it might be novel to have the whole family together for the holidays."
"It's worth a shot, right?" K said. "In one corner, we have the Hale girls and their extremely loud cooking fiasco … and in the other corner, the stabby ones … who cut down overly loud people… what could possibly go wrong?"
"Lily will sit on Akihiro," Gabby said in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone.
"I'm really not concerned," K promised. "It's just … the picture of Southern sweetness and then … behold. The dark ones from the north."
"I think it works," Gabby said. "I dated a Southern boy for a little while. He was sweet."
"Oh, they're fun," K agreed. "But they get torn up too easy. Sweet, tender little things." She gave Gabby a smile. "So romantic, though."
"He really, really was," Gabby said with a sigh that had Laura rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, with a wife on the side," Laura whispered to Logan.
"Did you kill him?" Logan asked conversationally.
"He wishes," Laura said.
"Remove things he really didn't need?" he asked, smirking over the mug.
"And he barely even bled."
"Attagirl," he said with a nod.
K rolled her eyes at them at almost the same time Gabby did. "How's your Swedish coming along?" she asked Gabby. "I have a really cute cottage you can borrow if you like. Tall, god-like blondes … roaming the wild."
"Oooh, that could be a fun change of pace," Gabby said, grinning up at K. "The last one was a brunette."
"Blondes are great palate cleansers, then," she said with a laugh as Logan covered his eyes with one hand.
Gabby was just showing K some of her Swedish when Daken finally did make it to the group, seemingly surrounded by the littlest ones in the house. It had started with Lily insisting that Daken had to say hello to her, and then John wanted to say hello, and then Chelsea wanted to see what her best friend Lily was up to… and then Ariel had to be part of the party… Daken was surrounded and didn't look pleased about it.
"Can you remove them?" Daken asked dryly.
"MAY KISSMAS!" Ariel shouted up at the others, halfway attached to Daken's leg, just to complete the picture.
Logan and K were watching from the kitchen counter, smirking in such an overly smug manner so that they didn't even need to comment before Daken rolled his eyes and glared at them. "Don't start."
"Just sayin'," K said as she turned out a few more Swedish pancakes. "It's genetic."
"Mama says it's a — a dairy mutation," Chelsea agreed with her nose scrunched up as she tried to get the words right.
That had Logan nearly snorting behind his hand before he did break down and laugh. "Yeah, honey, that's it. Why don't you and Ariel go tackle her grampa and tell him his favorite sibling just showed up."
Chelsea giggled and nodded as she grabbed Ariel by the hand, though it took a bit of coaxing to get Ariel to let go of Daken before the two girls ran off giggling.
"You're a horrible influence," Daken said, shaking his head. "Why do they let you near the children again?"
"No idea," Logan replied as he handed Daken a cup for tea. "Any reason you three decided on the holiday attack?"
"We heard a rumor that you might be finding out what the newest sibling was going to be," Laura answered. "And we wanted to know."
"I want another sister," Gabby said, grinning at K. "We need to rule the world. Beautiful women everywhere."
"That'd be the case either way," K told her.
"Well, obviously, but we need more," Gabby said. "For fun."
K shook her head and looked over at Logan. "Unfortunately, that's not up to me," she said.
"Logan, gimmie another sister," Gabby said without missing a beat.
Logan smirked at her and shook his head. "Not this time."
"A boy, then?" Laura raised an eyebrow at that.
"Not many other options," K said, shaking her head.
"Awww, but you were trying for a girl, weren't you?" Gabby pouted. "Figures."
"You're telling me," K said dryly.
Daken was smirking to himself crookedly. "Wait. You actually were hoping for a girl from the start?" The smirk stretched a little wider. "I think I like this one."
"He's not even born yet," K said. "You're not allowed to have an opinion for at least … fifty years."
"Too late. I like him," he replied. "The best one so far — contrary from the very beginning."
James came in shortly after that, and when he got his coffee, he acted as if he didn't see Daken and shoved him halfway across the counter. "Oops."
"We were just talking about the new brother," Laura said.
James looked up, then took in the three of them before he couldn't help but smile crookedly at Daken. "Wonder how much taller than you he'll be."
"Doesn't matter. He's Akihiro's favorite," Gabby said perfectly happily.
"He's intimidated by me," James chuckled, but that got a shove from Daken.
"You see this? Eternally teenagers," K said as she handed Gabby her pancakes.
"Do you think John and the newbie will be like that too?" she stage-whispered.
"They're boys," K said. "Of course they will."
"This is why I need sisters," Gabby sighed.
"Next time," Logan said, smirking even wider, though K looked outright annoyed at that. "Hey. Don't gimme that look. We agreed."
"Yeah. When I thought we'd get another girl. Not … boys," K replied, though she wasn't really arguing. Just … complaining.
"Wait. Wait," Daken said, smiling wider than before. "So this one came to be over an agreement? That obviously didn't go your way?" He couldn't help but laugh at that. "Oh, this keeps getting better." He paused then shook his head. "This one is my favorite … unless the next one is a boy too. Then that one will be my favorite."
"Oh, okay, I didn't realize you were staging an uprising ahead of my family's arrival," Chance said as he and Elin came in while K was shooting Daken a look.
"We're just celebrating the new small boy," Daken said with a laugh.
"Boy, huh?" Chance grinned over at K and kissed her cheek. "Congratulations!"
"Thanks, sweetheart," she replied, returning the kiss.
Chance smiled and then grabbed a coffee to sit by James. "Hey, sorry about the identity mixup, by the way," he said, handing James a handwritten letter on top of it.
"What's this?" James asked, frowning as he opened the envelope.
"Elin explained that I had called you 'Daken', and I didn't think just one apology would do," Chance said with a smirk.
"Ugh," Daken said, his smile gone, looking supremely insulted.
"Believe me: it was way worse for me than it could ever be for you," James said dryly to Daken, then started to laugh to himself at Chance's letter, which was over-the-top in the best possible ways.
Chance shrugged. "I was out of my mind. Only way to mix you two up."
James set down his mug to give Chance a hug. "I knew what was going on — and all things considered, it was probably the best explanation to your eight-year old memory."
Chance grinned at him. "Still. Figured I should make sure you got a good laugh too."
"Appreciate it," he said before he took a step back and the group began to move to the dining room.
"You want a hand, Mom?" Chance asked as K finished plating the last of it.
"You want to learn how to do this?" K asked.
"Hey, I bet I'd be good at it. Baker's genes," he said, knowing full well that if he said it was because she looked sort of gray and he wanted to take care of her that she would go the opposite way and kick him out.
"This isn't quite baking," K replied, smiling lightly at him.
"I can cook too," he said with a laugh.
She gave him a little smile and waved him over. "There's a trick to it, but it's Elin's favorite, so it wouldn't hurt for you to know how." She took the time to show him how it was done, then leaned on the counter to watch him give it a shot. "So now … you can take your plate and join the zoo. Cinnamon rolls are about ready to pull, too."
"Sure you don't want some help with those too? That is baking," he teased.
She gave him a little smile and kissed his cheek. "If you want to do the heavy lifting, I won't complain. It'll give me a second to whip up the frosting."
"Hey, might as well. Mom uses me for manual labor on Christmas Day, after all," he said. He paused and then bit his lip before he had to ask, "You feeling alright, by the way?"
"I suppose," she said, though if she knew what Chance was concerned about, she was doing a fine job at playing dumb about it. "I wasn't expecting those three — that was a little shock. It's nice to see them not being idiots, but still."
"Christmas surprise, yeah," Chance said. "I'm glad I got my head on straight in time for you to get to spend the time with them."
She gave him another kiss on the cheek. "You're the best son-in-law," she said. "But they're just here to see Logan."
He smiled at her and shrugged. "I'm sort of your only son-in-law, seeing as you adopted Noh and Peter Quill."
"You're not my only one," she said. "Those two count."
He smiled at that as he helped bring out the cinnamon rolls. "Love you too, Mom."
"Oh! I almost forgot," K said, rushing across the kitchen for just a second — only to return with a crazy straw that she dropped into Chance's coffee. "Couldn't forget."
Chance blinked at the straw for a moment before he turned the full force of an incredibly dry look her way. "Seriously, Mom?"
She grinned up at him. "If I don't pick on you, how will you know that I love you?"
He just shook his head at that and leaned over to kiss her cheek, though he tossed the swirly straw in the sink anyway.
"Wrong color?" she said, cringing. "I'll do better next time."
He laughed at that. "Coffee doesn't work with straws very well. Maybe with my orange juice," he couldn't help but tease.
"Got it," she said, one eye closed as she nodded seriously. "Come and have breakfast with me."
He couldn't help but smile at her, though he ended up sitting between James and Elin, since that was the open spot. He did keep an eye on her on the other side of Logan, though, and he couldn't help but frown to himself. She was more miserable than she let on, and she was barely close to four months in. And to think of asking Elin to do that after he'd just had that big fight with her about wanting her to be safe felt pretty hypocritical, if he was honest.
